Selecting and Providing of Supplemental Content for Video Transport Stream

ABSTRACT

A method and system to facilitate localized replacement of one or more commercials or other instances of base content in a video feed with replacement-media delivered in a separate broadcast TV transport stream. A local TV station that broadcasts to an area covering a video program distributor (VPD) includes supplemental content, such as replacement commercials, within its broadcast in a manner that standard broadcast-TV receivers would disregard but that a equipment at the VPD will receive and process. The equipment at the VPD thus receives the local broadcast from the TV station and extracts from the broadcast the included supplemental content. And equipment at the VPD inserts the extracted supplemental content in place of one or more instances of base content in a transport stream that the VPD receives separately from a video-program source, so as to establish a modified transport stream for delivery to end-user TV receivers.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/636,575,filed Mar. 3, 2015, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description provided in thissection is not itself prior art to the claims and is not admitted to beprior art by inclusion in this section.

In order to deliver video program content to end-users for presentationon televisions (TVs) and other such devices, a provider of the contentmay transmit the content to one or more video program distributors(VPDs) that in turn transmit the content to various end-user TVreceivers. Such a hierarchical arrangement can facilitate convenient,widespread distribution of content.

By way of example, in order for a media company to distribute videoprogram content to end-user TV receivers throughout the United States,the media company may transmit the video program content by satellite orother medium for receipt by VPDs that serve respective market areaswithin the United States. Each such VPD may thus receive the nationalsatellite feed carrying the video program content and transmit the videoprogram content to end-user TV receivers in the VPD's market area. Inpractice, these VPDs and their means of transmission to end-user TVreceivers may take various forms. For instance, the VPDs may includecable-television providers that transmit video program content toend-user TV receivers (e.g., cable TV subscriber devices) through hybridfiber/coaxial cable connections, terrestrial over-the-air broadcast TVproviders that transmit video program content through terrestrial airinterfaces to end-user TV receivers (e.g., standard digital televisionsor associated adapters), and others.

The video program content in this arrangement may comprise one or moreTV shows along with one or more commercials positioned within or betweenTV shows. Further, the video program content may comprise multiple TVchannels, each of which may in turn carry one or more TV shows and oneor more commercials, in which case the VPDs may be multi-channel videoprogram distributors (MVPDs) that provide end-users with a selection ofmultiple channels to watch. Further, the video program content may bedigitized and packetized for transmission as a transport stream from thevideo content provider to the VPDs and from the VPDs to the end-user TVreceivers.

SUMMARY

In addition to receiving a video transport stream and passing content ofthe stream along to end-user TV receivers, a VPD may also receivesupplemental content and add the supplemental content to the transportstream for distribution to end-user TV receivers. By way of example, aVPD that receives a national video feed may also receive local videocontent such as local news shows and commercials that advertise orpromote locally-available products, services, and/or otherVPD-distributed video content, and the VPD may insert that local videocontent into the transport stream, possibly in place of other content inthe transport stream, for distribution to end-user TV receivers in theVPD's market area.

As a specific example of this, a received national video feed mayinclude a number of commercials (some possibly as simple as a blackscreen showing the national provider's logo) or other base content, andequipment at the VPD may replace some of that base content withcommercials or other replacement content that is more specific to theVPD's market area. To facilitate this, the transport stream that the VPDreceives may include certain in-band audio tones or out-of-band signalsthat demarcate points where the VPD can insert replacement content, andequipment at the VPD can then perform the insertion automatically atthose points.

At issue in this arrangement, however, is how to provide thisreplacement content to the VPD so that the equipment at the VPD caninsert the replacement content into the received transport stream inplace of base content in the transport stream. One way to do this is totransmit the replacement content to the VPD through the Internet. Forinstance, a provider of locally-relevant commercials could transmit thecommercials to equipment at the VPD using File Transfer Protocol (FTP)or BitTorrent transmission over the Internet. For various reasons,however, transmission of replacement content through the Internet may beundesirable. Therefore, an alternative is desired.

Disclosed herein is a method and system to facilitate localizedreplacement of one or more commercials or other base content in a videofeed with replacement-media delivered in a separate broadcast TVtransport stream. In particular, a local TV station that broadcasts overthe air to an area covering a VPD will include supplemental content,such as replacement commercials, within its over-the-air broadcast in amanner that standard end-user broadcast-TV receivers would disregard butthat a special equipment at the VPD will receive and process. Theequipment at the VPD will thus receive the local broadcast from the TVstation and will extract from the broadcast the included supplementalcontent. As the VPD receives a transport stream from a video contentprovider separate from broadcast TV transport stream received from thelocal TV station, the VPD will then insert the extracted supplementalcontent into the received transport stream in place of one or morecommercials or other base content within the received transport stream.And the VPD will then transmit to end-user TV receivers the resultingmodified transport stream including the inserted supplemental content.

This method and system may operate in a scenario where the local TVstation provides its over-the-air broadcast as a digital transportstream compliant with an industry standard such as the AdvancedTelevision Systems Committee (ATSC) Digital Television Standard A/53, inwhich case end-user TV receivers may comprise digital televisionadapters (DTAs) configured to receive and process such transportstreams. Such a transport stream may be made up of a sequence of packetseach having a packet-identifier (PID) that characterizes payload of thepacket—perhaps indicating whether the packet carries audio content,video content, closed-captioning content, or the like. Further, in sucha stream, the TV station may include from time to time an index-packetthat carries an index specifying which PIDs correspond with which typesof payload, so that recipient TV receivers can process packets based ontheir PIDs. Thus, as an end-user TV receiver receives packets of such atransport stream, the receiver may read the PID of each packet todetermine, based on a latest provided index, what type of payload thepacket contains and may process the payload accordingly.

To facilitate providing supplemental content to a VPD in this scenario,the local TV station may transmit the supplemental content in packetswith special PIDs that are not so indexed, so that standard end-user TVreceivers will not process the packets (as the packet payload will be ofan unknown type), but a broadcast-TV receiver with associated controllogic at the VPD may be programmed to detect those special PIDs asindicating that the payload in those packets is supplemental content.Unlike standard end-user TV receivers, the equipment at the VPD may thusprocess those packets to extract at least a portion of the supplementalcontent from the packets and store the extracted supplemental content atthe VPD. In turn, the VPD may then insert the extracted supplementalcontent into a separately received transport stream in place of one ormore commercials, so as to generate a modified transport streamcontaining the supplemental content, and the VPD may then deliver themodified transport stream to end-user TV receivers for playout.

Accordingly, in one respect, disclosed is a method involving localizedreplacement of base content in a video feed, with replacement mediadelivered in a broadcast TV transport stream. In accordance with themethod, a computing system at a local VPD (i.e., a VPD serving aparticular geographic market) receives a first transport streambroadcast from a TV station (e.g., a terrestrial over-the-air broadcastTV station), and the received first transport stream includes standardmedia content that is indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TVreceivers and supplemental media content that is not indexed forprocessing by standard broadcast-TV receivers. Further, the computingsystem extracts from the received first transport stream at least oneportion of the supplemental media content (e.g., one or morelocally-relevant commercials), to facilitate insertion of thatsupplemental content into a transport stream to be delivered to end-userTV receivers.

In addition, the computing system receives from a video-program sourceother than the TV station (e.g., from a C-band satellite TV feed) asecond transport stream for delivery by the local VPD to customerpremises equipment (CPE) receivers that are served by the local VPD, andthe received second transport stream includes base content such as oneor more TV shows and one or more commercials. The computing system theninjects the extracted portion of the supplemental media content into thesecond transport stream in place of at least one instance of the basecontent (e.g., in place of one or more commercials), so as to establisha modified version of the second transport stream having the extractedportion of the supplemental media content injected in place of the atleast one instance of the base content (so that the modified version ofthe second transport stream includes one or more instances of the basecontent and one or more instances of the inserted supplemental content).And the computing system outputs the modified version of the secondtransport stream for transmission by the local VPD to the CPE receiversserved by the local VPD.

In another respect, disclosed is a method characterized from theperspective of one or more entities that may provide the first andsecond transport streams and that may arrange for the equipment at theVPD to carry out features such as those noted above. An example of suchan entity is a media company that owns or operates both the broadcast TVstation that provides the first transport stream and the video-programsource that provides the second transport stream. As a specific example,this could be a company that provides a national video feed to VPDsthroughout the United States but that also owns or operates a localterrestrial broadcast TV station that serves end-users in a particulargeographic market encompassing the VPD.

In accordance with this method, a TV station broadcasts (e.g., throughterrestrial over-the-air broadcast) a first transport stream thatcarries standard media content indexed for processing by standardbroadcast-TV receivers and that carries supplemental media content notindexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers. Further, avideo-program source broadcasts (e.g., through satellite transmission) asecond transport stream that carries one or more TV shows and one ormore commercials. And equipment at a local VPD receives the broadcastfirst transport stream and the broadcast second transport stream andcarries out operations such as those noted above. For instance, theequipment (i) extracts at least a portion of the supplemental mediacontent from the received first transport stream, (ii) injects theextracted portion of the supplemental media content into the receivedsecond transport stream in place of at least one of the one or morecommercials, and (iii) outputs, for transmission by the local VPD to CPEreceivers served by the local VPD a modified version of the secondtransport stream having the injected supplemental media content in placeof the at least one commercial.

Additionally, in still another respect, disclosed is computing systemthat could be implemented at a VPD to carry out operations such as thosenoted above. Such a computing system may include at least onecommunication interface, at least one processing unit, at least onenon-transitory data storage medium, and program instructions stored inthe at least one data storage medium and executable by the at least oneprocessing unit to carry out various operations.

In line with the discussion above, the operations carried out by such acomputing system may include receiving via the at least onecommunication interface a first transport stream that is broadcastterrestrially over the air from a TV station, the first transport streamcarrying (i) standard media content indexed for processing by standardterrestrial-broadcast-TV receivers and (ii) supplemental media contentnot indexed for processing by standard terrestrial-broadcast-TVreceivers. Further, the operations may include receiving via the atleast one communication interface a second transport stream that isbroadcast by satellite from a video-program source, the second transportstream carrying one or more TV shows and one or more commercials. Inaddition, the operations may include extracting from the received firsttransport stream at least a portion of the supplemental media content,inserting the extracted portion of the supplemental media content intothe received second transport stream in place of at least one of the oneor more commercials, thereby establishing a modified transport streamthat carries at least a portion of the TV shows and that carries theextracted portion of supplemental media content in place of the at leastone commercial, and outputting via the at least one communicationinterface the modified transport stream for delivery to CPE receivers.

These as well as other aspects, advantages, and alternatives will becomeapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the followingdetailed description, with reference where appropriate to theaccompanying drawings. Further, it should be understood that thedescriptions provided in this summary and below are intended toillustrate the invention by way of example only and not by way oflimitation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a basic arrangement in which aVPD receives a transport stream and delivers content of the transportstream to end-user TV receivers in the VPD's market area.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a basis arrangement in which abroadcast TV station broadcasts a transport stream over the air forreceipt by end-user TV receivers.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a representative broadcast-TV transportstream.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of an arrangement in whichsupplemental media content, such as replacement commercials, is providedby a local over-the-air TV broadcast to a VPD, to facilitate insertionof the supplemental media content into a separately received transportstream for delivery to end-user TV receivers.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a representative broadcast-TV transportstream including standard media content and supplemental media content.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting operations that can be carried out inaccordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is another flow chart depicting operations that can be carriedout in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a computing system, showing someof the components that such a system could include to facilitatecarrying out features of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the drawings, as noted above, FIG. 1 is a simplified blockdiagram depicting a basic arrangement in which a VPD 12 receives atransport stream from a video-program source 14 and delivers thereceived transport stream to end-user TV receivers 16 in the VPD'smarket area.

In practice, as discussed above, the VPD 12 may take various forms andmay be configured to deliver transport streams to end-user TV receiversin various ways. By way of example, the VPD may be a cable-TV provider(e.g., a cable-TV head-end) that transmits content to end-user TVreceivers through hybrid fiber/coaxial cable connections, a terrestrialover-the-air broadcast TV provider (e.g., a broadcast TV station) thattransmits content through a terrestrial over-the-air interface toend-user TV receivers, or perhaps even a satellite-TV provider thattransmits content through satellite transmission to end-user TVreceivers, among other possibilities.

Accordingly, the end-user TV 16 receivers may also take various forms,configured to be able to receive transport streams from the VPD and toprovide content of those streams for playout on TVs or other suchdevices. For instance, if the VPD is a cable-TV provider, then theend-user TV receivers may be cable-TV receivers such as set-top boxes orsimilar receivers integrated into TVs or other equipment. Whereas, ifthe VPD is a terrestrial over-the-air broadcast TV provider, then theend-user TV receivers may be standard broadcast TV receivers withassociated antenna structures for receiving the over-the-air broadcastand with associated control logic for processing the received broadcastfor playout.

Further, the video-program source 14 may take various forms as well andmay transmit a transport stream to the VPD in various ways. For example,the video-program source may be a media provider that provides anational video feed by satellite transmission, in which case the VPDwould make use of a satellite receiver for receiving the transportstream from the video-program source. And as another example, thevideo-program source may be a media provider that provides a transportstream to the VPD in some other manner, and the VPD would becorrespondingly equipped to receive the transport stream in that mannerfrom the video-program source for processing.

The transport stream that the VPD receives from the video-program sourcein this arrangement may carry one or more TV shows and one or morecommercials (including for instance, commercial advertisements and/orpromotions). Further, the transport stream may be a digital transportstream compliant with an industry standard, such as ATSC A/53, and maythus define a sequence of packets 18, which may have PIDs characterizingtheir payload. In practice, the VPD may thus receive such a transportstream and transmit the stream along to end-user TV receivers served bythe VPD. As an end-user TV receiver receives the transport stream, thereceiver may then read the PIDs of the packets to determine the providedpayload type and may process the payload accordingly, so as to outputaudio, video, and/or closed-captioning content for playout for instance.

FIG. 2 is next an illustration of a basic arrangement in which abroadcast TV station 20 broadcasts a transport stream over the air forreceipt by end-user TV receivers 22.

In this arrangement, the broadcast TV station may be a terrestrialover-the-air broadcast TV station of the type that delivers videoprogram through terrestrial over-the-air transmission to appropriatelyconfigured end-user broadcast TV receivers. Thus, the broadcast TVstation may operate a powerful transmitter and antenna structure (suchas a tower top, or building top antenna) to provide such a broadcast ina local market area. As discussed above, the transport stream providedby the broadcast TV station may be a digital transport stream compliantwith an industry standard such as ATSC A/53, and may thus define asequence of packets 24, which may have PIDs characterizing theirpayload. And the end-user TV receivers 22 may be terrestrialbroadcast-TV receivers with antenna structures and DTAs configured toreceive and process the digital transport stream for playout. In somecases, these end-user TV receivers 22 may be the same end-user TVreceivers 16 that are configured to receive and process transportstreams from the VPD 12.

FIG. 3 is next a more specific example illustration of a representativebroadcast-TV transport stream 24 of the type that broadcast TV station20 may transmit for receipt by end-user TV receivers 22. As shown inthis example, the transport stream includes a sequence of packets (sevenof which, 26-40, are shown for simplicity) that each have a headerportion and a payload portion. The header of each packet in thissequence is shown including a respective PID that characterizes a typeof the payload in the packet, such as whether the payload is audiocontent, video content, closed-captioning content, or other (e.g.,ancillary) content, and/or indicating an underlying media stream towhich the payload belongs. Further, from time to time, the exampletransport stream includes an index-packet that has a predefinedindex-packet PID and that carries as payload a set of mapping data thatcorrelates various PIDs with various payload types.

In this example, for instance, packet 26 is shown as an index-packethaving PID “1” (which, in practice, may be a more specific hex value)that end-user TV receivers 22 are programmed to treat as indicating thatthe packet is an index-packet. As shown in the exploded view in thefigure, the payload of the index-packet then includes mapping data thatcorrelates PIDs “2”, “3”, and “4” with particular payload types and/orunderlying media streams. In particular, the mapping data specifies thatPID “2” corresponds with audio data, PID “3” corresponds with videodata, and PID “4” corresponds with closed-captioning data.

With this arrangement, a TV receiver would thus receive thisindex-packet 26 and make note of the correlations, and as the TVreceiver then receives the subsequent packets of the transport stream,the TV receiver would process each packet accordingly based on itspayload type. For instance, as the TV receiver receives packets 30 and36, the receiver may process the payload of those packets as audio forplayout based on their being tagged with PID “2”; as the TV receiverreceives packets 32 and 38, the receiver may process the payload ofthose packets as video for playout based on their being tagged with PID“3”; and as the TV receiver receives packets 34 and 40, the receiver mayprocess the payload of those packets as closed-captioning for playoutbased on their being tagged with PID “4”. This processing of each typeof payload may involve extracting the underlying payload of variouspackets, recombining the payload together into an underlying mediastream, and playing out the underlying media stream, perhaps inconjunction with one or more other underlying media streams (such asplaying out a video program by presenting its video content, audiocontent, and closed-captioning content concurrently).

As noted above, the present method and system advances at least in partby making use of a local TV broadcast to deliver supplemental content,such as replacement commercials, to a VPD for the VPD to insert into aseparately received transport stream for delivery to end-user TVreceivers. FIG. 4 illustrates an example arrangement for implementingthis advance.

As shown in FIG. 4, the VPD 12 in this arrangement is itself equippedwith broadcast-TV receiver 42 and associated control logic 44 forreceiving a transport stream 46 via over-the-air broadcast from thelocal broadcast TV station 20 and for extracting supplemental contentsuch as replacement commercials from that transport stream 46. VPD 12then includes a module 48 for inserting the extracted supplementalcontent into a transport stream 50 that VPD 12 separately receives fromvideo program source 14, such as in place of one or more commercials orother base content in the transport stream 50, to thereby produce amodified transport stream 52 that includes the supplemental content inplace of the base content. The VPD may then deliver that modifiedtransport stream to the end-user TV receivers 16 for play out.

As illustrated, the broadcast TV receiver 42, associated control logic44, and content replacement module 48 may be considered to definecomponents of a computing system 54 at the VPD. In practice, thebroadcast TV receiver 42 may comprise a DTA much like what a standardend-user broadcast TV receiver 22 would include, and the associatedcontrol logic and content replacement module 48 may be separate orintegrated with the broadcast TV receiver 42 and may comprise one ormore computer processors programmed with instructions to carry outvarious logical operations described herein.

In practice, the transport stream 46 broadcast by broadcast TV station20 in this arrangement will be a special version of the broadcasttransport stream 24 discussed above, in that transport stream 46 willnot only carry standard media content that is indexed for processing bystandard broadcast TV receivers such as end-user TV receivers 22 asdiscussed above, but will also carry supplemental media content (such asreplacement commercials) that is not indexed for processing by standardbroadcast-TV receivers but that computing system 54 is speciallyconfigured to recognize and process.

To achieve this in an example implementation, a computing system (notshown) at the broadcast TV station may receive standard media content(e.g., audio, video, closed-captioning, etc.) and packetize that contentinto one sequence of packets having associated indexed PIDs, and mayreceive supplemental media content (e.g., one or more replacementcommercials) and packetize that content into another sequence of packetshaving non-indexed PIDs, and the computing system may multiplex thesequences of packets together to generate a combined transport stream46, which the broadcast TV station may then modulate for radio frequencytransmission to broadcast TV receivers. In this process, the PIDs of thestandard media content packets would be indexed by one or moreindex-packets as discussed above. But the PIDs of the supplemental mediacontent packets would not be so indexed. Consequently, or through othermeans, standard broadcast TV receivers would have no basis to processthe supplemental media content packets (and would thus disregard them).However, the computing system 54 at the VPD would be speciallyprogrammed to recognize the non-indexed PIDs of the supplemental mediacontent packets, so that the computing system 54 can process thosesupplemental media content packets.

FIG. 5 depicts an example of this transport stream arrangement, as avariation of the broadcast TV transport stream 24 shown in FIG. 3. Inparticular, FIG. 5 shows two of example supplemental media contentpackets 56 and 58 added into the transport stream, with theirsupplemental media content payload sections shown with shading in thefigure. These two example added packets are shown being tagged with PID“5”. But the index-packet 26 does not list PID “5”. Consequently,standard broadcast TV receivers that receive this transport stream woulddisregard those packets. On the other hand, computing system 54 at VPD12 may be programmed to recognize PID “5” as corresponding withsupplemental media content for processing as described herein, without aneed for PID “5” to be indexed.

The supplemental media content provided in the broadcast TV transportstream in this process may include various discrete pieces of content,such as various commercials (along with information identifying thecommercials and providers), perhaps with each piece of content beingcarried by packets tagged with a respective corresponding non-indexedPID. Further, the broadcast TV station could provide the supplementalmedia content slowly over time (as a trickle transmission) within thebroadcast TV transport stream, in an effort to not disrupt the real-timenature of the broadcast TV transmission in a user-perceivable manner.Still further, to facilitate this, the broadcast TV station could reducethe coding rate of the standard media content included in the broadcastTV transport stream slightly from a normal level, in an effort to makeroom in the transport stream for inclusion of the supplemental mediacontent packets.

In example practice with this arrangement, the computing system 54 atVPD 12 may thus receive the transport stream 46 and extract from thestream at least a portion of the included supplemental media content,and the computing system 54 or other equipment at VPD 12 may then insertthat extracted supplemental media content in place of one or morecommercials and/or other instances of base content in the transportstream 50 that VPD 12 receives from video-program source 14. Forexample, if the supplemental media content comprises one or morereplacement commercials, the computing system 54 could extract at leastone such commercial (e.g., with associated audio, video and/or othercontent) and insert the extracted commercial(s) in place of one or morecommercials in transport stream 50. This insertion process may involveinserting into the transport stream new packets that carry thereplacement commercial content, perhaps in place of packets that carriedthe commercials being replaced.

As the supplemental media content may arrive slowly over time within thebroadcast TV transport stream 46, the computing system 54 may beconfigured to store the extracted supplemental media content and to thenlater inject some or all of that extracted supplemental media contentinto the transport stream 50 as and when appropriate. As discussedabove, for instance, the transport stream 50 that the VPD 12 receivesfrom video-program provider 14 may include in-band or out-of-bandcontrol signals indicating insertion points (e.g., time points in thestream where supplemental content can or should be inserted). Thecomputing system 54 may thus be configured to monitor the receivedtransport stream 50 to detect such trigger points and to insert portionsof the extracted supplemental media content at the detected points, soas to generate the modified transport stream 52 for delivery to end-userTV receives.

In an example implementation of this process, the supplemental mediacontent included in the broadcast TV transport stream may includecommercials provided by various commercial-providers, and the computingsystem 54 or an associated entity may be configured to select from thoseprovided a commercial to insert into the transport stream 50. Inpractice, this selection process could be based on bidding by thecommercial-providers. For instance, the commercial-providers may engagein a bidding process to compete for placement of their commercialswithin or between particular TV shows in transport stream 50, andcomputing system 54 may select the commercial having the highest bid.Other examples are possible as well.

FIG. 6 is next a flow chart depicting example operations that can becarried out by a computing system such as computing system 54 forinstance at a local VPD (i.e., at a VPD that serves a particular marketarea). Although the blocks of this figure are shown in series, it ispossible that various illustrated operations could be carried outconcurrently or in a different order. Further, other variations may bepossible as well.

As shown in FIG. 6, at block 60, the computing system receives a firsttransport stream (e.g., transport stream 46) broadcast from a TV station(e.g., TV station 20), the received first transport stream includingstandard media content indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TVreceivers and supplemental media content not indexed for processing bystandard broadcast-TV receivers. And at block 62, the computing systemextracts from the received first transport stream at least one portionof the supplemental media content, such as one or more replacementcommercials.

Further, at block 64, the computing system receives from a source otherthan the TV station (e.g., from video-program source 14), a secondtransport stream for delivery by the local VPD to CPE receivers (e.g.,end-user TV receivers 16) served by the local VPD, the received secondtransport stream including one or more TV shows and one or morecommercials. And at block 66, the computing system then injects theextracted portion of the supplemental media content into the secondtransport stream in place of at least one of the one or morecommercials, to establish a modified version of the second transportstream having the extracted portion of the supplemental media contentinjected in place of the at least one commercial. At block 68, thecomputing system then outputs the modified version of the secondtransport stream for transmission by the local VPD to the CPE receiversserved by the local VPD.

In this process, as discussed above, the TV station can be a terrestrialover-the-air broadcast TV station configured to terrestrially broadcastthe first transport stream over the air for receipt by broadcast-TVreceivers that are configured to receive terrestrial over-the-air TVbroadcasts. In that case, the local VPD may be equipped with a givensuch broadcast-TV receiver configured to receive terrestrialover-the-air TV broadcasts, and it would be that broadcast-TV receiverthat would receive the first transport stream terrestrially broadcastover the air from the TV station. Further, the local VPD may be equippedwith a controller, such as a programmed computer, separate from orintegrated with the broadcast-TV receiver, which may carry out theextracting and injecting operations.

Additionally in line with the discussion above, the second transportstream may be broadcast substantially simultaneously (e.g., by satellitetransmission from a video-program source) to multiple VPDs, each ofwhich serves CPE receivers in a different respective geographic market,and the local VPD may be one such VPD and may serve CPE receivers in aparticular geographic market. In that case, the at least one commercialcould be a commercial that is generally for multiple geographic markets(such as a nationally-relevant commercial), and the extracted portion ofthe supplemental media content injected in place of the at least onecommercial could be local content that is specific to the particulargeographic market. For instance, the local content specific to theparticular geographic market could comprise a commercial that advertisesa product or service and/or a commercial that promotes video programcontent.

Further in line with the discussion above, the act of extracting fromthe first transport stream the at least one portion of the supplementalmedia content may involve extracting from the first transport streammultiple portions of the supplemental media content, such as multiplecommercials. And the method may further involve the computing systemstoring the extracted multiple portions of the supplemental mediacontent and selecting from the stored multiple portions of thesupplemental media content a particular one of the portions of thesupplemental media content to be injected into the second transportstream in place of the at least one commercial, so that the injectedportion of the supplemental media content is the selected portion. Asnoted above, for instance, the multiple portions could be associatedwith multiple respective content providers, in which case selecting theportion to be injected could be based on bidding among the multiplecontent providers to determine which content provider's portion of thesupplemental media content will be injected.

FIG. 7 is next a flow chart depicting operations that can be carried outby one or more entities, such as by an operator of the broadcast TVstation 20 and/or an operator of the video-program source 14 (perhaps bya company that owns and/or operates both the broadcast TV station andthe video-program source). In practice, the one or more entities mayalso operate the VPD or may work with the VPD to implement a computingsystem such as that described above. Here again, the illustrated orderor timing of steps could be varied. Further, details provided abovecould be applied within this method as well.

As shown in FIG. 7, at block 70, the method includes a TV stationbroadcasting a first transport stream that carries standard mediacontent indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers andthat carries supplemental media content not indexed for processing bystandard broadcast-TV receivers. And at block 72, the method includes avideo-program source broadcasting a second transport stream that carriesone or more TV shows and one or more commercials. At block 74, themethod then includes, at a local VPD, receiving the broadcast firsttransport stream and the broadcast second transport stream. And at block76, the method includes, at the local VPD, (i) extracting at least aportion of the supplemental media content from the received firsttransport stream, (ii) injecting the extracted portion of thesupplemental media content into the received second transport stream inplace of at least one of the one or more commercials, and (iii)outputting, for transmission by the local VPD to CPE receivers served bythe local VPD a modified version of the second transport stream havingthe injected supplemental media content in place of the at least onecommercial.

Finally, FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram showing some of thecomponents that can be included in a computing system such as computingsystem 54 described above. As shown, the example computing system mayinclude at least one communication interface 80, at least one processingunit 82, at least one non-transitory data storage 84, all of which maybe communicatively linked together by a system bus, network, or otherconnection mechanism 86.

In practice, the at least one communication interface 80 could include abroadcast TV receiver (not shown) configured to receive a transportstream broadcast from broadcast TV station 20, and could also include asatellite receiver (not shown) configured to receive a transport streambroadcast from video-program source 14. Alternatively, these receiverscould be external to the computing system, and the at least onecommunication interface could be an Ethernet or other such networkcommunication interface arranged to receive outputs (e.g., packet data)from the receivers for processing as described herein.

The at least one processing unit 82 may then comprise one or moregeneral purposes processors (e.g., microprocessors) and/or one or morespecial purpose processors (e.g., application specific integratedcircuits, etc.) and could be integrated in whole or in part with the atleast one communication interface 80. Further, the at least one datastorage 84 could comprise one or more volatile and/or non-volatilestorage components, such as magnetic, optical, or flash storage, andcould be integrated in whole or in part with the at least one processingunit 82.

As shown, the data storage may then store program instructions 88 thatare executable by the at least one processing unit 82 to carry outvarious operations as described herein. For instance, the programinstructions may be executable to receive via the at least onecommunication interface 80 a first transport stream that is broadcastterrestrially over the air from a TV station, the first transport streamcarrying (i) standard media content indexed for processing by standardterrestrial-broadcast-TV receivers and (ii) supplemental media contentnot indexed for processing by standard terrestrial-broadcast-TVreceivers. Further, the program instructions may be executable toreceive via the at least one communication interface 80 a secondtransport stream that is broadcast by satellite from a video-programsource, the second transport stream carrying one or more TV shows andone or more commercials.

In addition, the program instructions may be executable to extract fromthe received first transport stream at least a portion of thesupplemental media content, to insert the extracted portion of thesupplemental media content into the received second transport stream inplace of at least one of the one or more commercials, therebyestablishing a modified transport stream carrying at least a portion ofthe TV shows and carrying the extracted portion of supplemental mediacontent in place of the at least one commercial, and to output via theat least one communication interface the modified transport stream fordelivery to CPE receivers.

Exemplary embodiments have been described above. Those skilled in theart will understand, however, that changes and modifications may be madeto these embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit ofthe invention.

We claim:
 1. A system comprising: a broadcast television (TV) stationcomprising a transmitter and antenna structure for broadcasting in alocal market area, wherein the broadcast TV station broadcasts a firsttransport stream carrying standard media content indexed for processingby standard broadcast-TV receivers and carrying supplemental mediacontent not indexed for processing by standard broadcast-TV receivers; avideo program distributor (VPD) equipped with a broadcast-TV receiverand associated control logic for receiving the first transport streambroadcast from the local broadcast TV station and for extracting aselected portion of the supplemental media content from the receivedfirst transport stream, wherein the VPD is configured (i) to inject theextracted portion of the supplemental media content into a secondtransport stream that the VPD receives from a program source, in placeof one or more commercials in the received second transport stream and(ii) to output, for transmission to customer premises equipment (CPE)receivers served by the local VPD a modified version of the secondtransport stream having the injected supplemental media content in placeof the at least one commercial.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the atleast one commercial is generally for multiple geographic markets, butwherein the extracted portion of the supplemental media content injectedin place of the at least one commercial comprises local content specificto the particular geographic market.
 3. A method comprising: receivingby a computing system a transport stream including base video content;receiving, by the computing system supplemental video content defining aplurality of commercial advertisements; selecting by the computingsystem one of the commercial advertisements defined by the receivedsupplemental video content, and inserting by the computing system intothe received transport stream the selected commercial advertisement toestablish a modified transport stream including the base video contentand the selected commercial advertisement; and providing the modifiedtransport stream, including the base video content and the selectedcommercial advertisement, to an end-user television (TV) receiver forplayout.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the selecting of thecommercial advertisement is based on bidding among providers associatedwith the multiple commercial advertisements.
 5. The method of claim 3,wherein the received transport stream includes a base commercialadvertisement, and wherein inserting the selected commercialadvertisement into the received transport stream comprises inserting theselected commercial advertisement into the received transport stream inplace of the base commercial advertisement.
 6. The method of claim 3,wherein the received transport stream indicates with an audio tone apoint in the received transport stream where the inserting should bedone, wherein inserting the selected commercial advertisement into thereceived transport stream comprises (i) detecting the point based atleast in part on the audio tone, and (ii) inserting the selectedcommercial advertisement into the received transport stream at thedetected point.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein the selectedcommercial advertisement is one of (i) a commercial that advertises aproduct or service or (ii) a commercial that promotes video programcontent.
 8. The method of claim 3, carried out at a video programdistributor (VPD).
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the VPD is acable-TV head-end.
 10. The method of claim 3, wherein the end-user TVreceiver is in a geographic market, and wherein the selected commercialadvertisement is specific to the geographic market.
 11. The method ofclaim 3, wherein receiving the supplemental video content comprisesreceiving the supplemental video content in a broadcast stream.
 12. Acomputing system comprising: at least one communication interface; atleast one processing unit; at least one data storage; and programinstructions stored in the at least one data storage and executable bythe at least one processing unit to carry out operations comprising:receiving via the at least one communication interface a transportstream including base video content, receiving via the at least onecommunication interface supplemental video content defining a pluralityof commercial advertisements, selecting one of the commercialadvertisements defined by the received supplemental video content, andinserting into the received transport stream the selected commercialadvertisement to establish a modified transport stream including thebase video content and the selected commercial advertisement, andoutputting the modified transport stream via the at least onecommunication interface for delivery to and playout at an end-usertelevision (TV) receiver.
 13. The computing system of claim 12, whereinthe selecting of the commercial advertisement is based on bidding amongproviders associated with the multiple commercial advertisements. 14.The computing system of claim 12, wherein the received transport streamincludes a base commercial advertisement, and wherein inserting theselected commercial advertisement into the received transport streamcomprises inserting the selected commercial advertisement into thereceived transport stream in place of the base commercial advertisement.15. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the received transportstream indicates with an audio tone a point in the received transportstream where the inserting should be done, and wherein inserting theselected commercial advertisement into the received transport streamcomprises (i) detecting the point based at least in part on the audiotone, and (ii) inserting the selected commercial advertisement into thereceived transport stream at the detected point.
 16. The computingsystem of claim 12, wherein the selected commercial advertisement is oneof (i) a commercial that advertises a product or service or (ii) acommercial that promotes video program content.
 17. The computing systemof claim 12, disposed at a video program distributor (VPD).
 18. Thecomputing system of claim 17, wherein the VPD is a cable-TV head-end.19. The computing system of claim 12, wherein the end-user TV receiveris in a geographic market, and wherein the selected commercialadvertisement is specific to the geographic market.
 20. The computingsystem of claim 12, wherein receiving the supplemental video contentcomprises receiving the supplemental video content in a broadcaststream.